...YOu must be young as you don't seem to understand the current economic conditions. Apple is in a good position but they are not invulnerable. I would expect to see many major corporations disappear in the near future. Worst yet if the government continues to bail out failed corporations like GM and such all of us could be in a world of hurt. Corporations are like Animals with cancer, sooner or later they come down with the disease and the owners are no longer successful in cutting the growths away. At this point the corporation must die or end up becoming a hole in the ground that money is burnt in.
So if you want to have the ability to keep Apple afloat and buy its hardware in the future you better start speaking up now when talk about bailing out XYZ company comes up. Other wise you will be spending years pay for some lazy ass United Auto Workers paycheck. If you don't think this is possible you damn well better wake up, because frankly I want an environment where I know Apple can succeed. In part that means that each of us has the money to buy the Apple goody of his choice....
To me the risk is as though Apple is a slick smooth Catamaran cutting through the stormy, shark-infested waters, while various boats are leaking all around them.
There are some forces of nature we must all face some day.
The saddest part to me, is that sure, Apple is great and all that, but, you know what? They had common sense. Imagine that. COMMON BLOODY SENSE. Hmm... like, do dilligent R&D. Make good products. Don't waste money on rubbish overblown advertising campaigns. Listen to customers. Respond to the market. Thinking long term. Leveraging business finances etc. sensibly... *SIGH*
Unlike most of the 'tards that got the whole world into this mess.
I agree and it wouldn't take much- just discontinue AppleTV, add it's software to the mini, add an HDMI port and boom - it's a combo of both. I would keep the optical drive though -with an option for blu-ray.
ridiculous, apple tv costs need to be kept down. and it is pretty cool.
as for the mini, i am happy they will do a new model, but i really dont understand why they would get rid of the optical drive. such speculation is stupid, most if not all my programs come on disc. same with alot of people. also, this drive doesnt take much room, its as though apple just wants to cut 15-20 in costs from it, to do it. i understand on macbook air, but to make people buy an external drive, it is just raising costs in a clandestine way.
i really dont understand why they would get rid of the optical drive. such speculation is stupid, most if not all my programs come on disc. same with alot of people. also, this drive doesnt take much room, its as though apple just wants to cut 15-20 in costs from it, to do it. i understand on macbook air, but to make people buy an external drive, it is just raising costs in a clandestine way.
It's not just $15-20. If you buy an extra superdrive for a Mac Pro, they charge $100 and that is a tray-loading drive, which is typically cheaper than a slot-loading drive. I'd say you are talking about $150 for a slot-loading Apple superdrive. On a spare parts site, the drive is £95 excl tax, inclusive it is £111 = $174. It doesn't cost this to Apple but that's what it will cost you to buy a machine with that drive in it.
Imagine the case of the Mini server farm. They have over 500 Minis. 500 x $150 = $75,000 that didn't need to be spent as none of those drives are used.
At the very worst, there should be an option to not have an optical drive at all even if they don't get rid of it from the model and reduce the price accordingly. As well as being able to put another drive in for more room and RAID.
All the programs coming on disc issue isn't really a major problem because you can get an external, which is cheaper and faster. Also, you tend to install software once, so the drive doesn't need to be stuck inside the machine.
We are transitioning to Blu-Ray eventually. Would you rather have a DVD burner stuck inside your machine that you likely won't ever be able to upgrade or an external component that you can sell on ebay easily and get another external drive? The ability to change it easily applies to broken drives as well as upgrades.
I personally have an external and I've used the internal drive on my computer less than 5 times in about 2 years. My external, I've used over 100 times and I know that should my external drive break, I can get a replacement for about £20 as my drive enclosure takes IDE drives.
It's not just $15-20. If you buy an extra superdrive for a Mac Pro, they charge $100 and that is a tray-loading drive, which is typically cheaper than a slot-loading drive. I'd say you are talking about $150 for a slot-loading Apple superdrive. On a spare parts site, the drive is £95 excl tax, inclusive it is £111 = $174. It doesn't cost this to Apple but that's what it will cost you to buy a machine with that drive in it.
Slot loaders and tray loaders cost the same, the slots Apple sells are 12.7mm slim notebook drives in the Mini and 9.5mm superslims in the notebooks. The smaller a drive, the slower and more expensive it is. The reason you don't see slots very often in desktop drives is because they're incompatible of certain types of discs. One other point, I would never buy the extra drive. They're very easy to upgrade and the 16x IDE drives Apple uses are several years old.
To me the risk is as though Apple is a slick smooth Catamaran cutting through the stormy, shark-infested waters, while various boats are leaking all around them.
Nice! I'm a single hull guy myself though. The big concern is how many of those boats will actually sink. This is what could dramatically shrink Apples new product lines.
On the otherhand Apple has the ideal products, in iPhone and Touch for a very poor America. These are ideal devices for keeping in touch, extremely portable and energy efficient.
Quote:
There are some forces of nature we must all face some day.
The saddest part to me, is that sure, Apple is great and all that, but, you know what? They had common sense. Imagine that. COMMON BLOODY SENSE. Hmm... like, do dilligent R&D. Make good products. Don't waste money on rubbish overblown advertising campaigns. Listen to customers. Respond to the market. Thinking long term. Leveraging business finances etc. sensibly... *SIGH*
Unlike most of the 'tards that got the whole world into this mess.
If they manage it right there is a very good possibility that Apple could come out of this with flying colors. It depends in part upon the government not screwing up to bad(not likely) and Apple getting those new products online. More importantly getting those new products priced right. I see low cost handheld devices as being a key component of Apples success in the next couple of years. They would provide the communications that people will need in a durable package for mobility.
First guys realize that what Apple charges for a repair part or an upgrade has nothing to do with the actual cost of the drive! So don't use that as an arguement as it doesn't hold water.
Second I don't want to see the Mini loose it's optical drive but I would love the OPTION of not having one included. The reality is that in some applications the drive does nothing for you but produce heat which is also waste. So I'm all for a Optical drive free Mini as long as it is optional.
Third dropping the optical drive completely does give Apple some significant engineering advantages. For the Mini that CD drive takes up a lot of space! Another issue is power budgetting which means Apple needs to size components in the power supply to handle the optical drive load plus everything else all the time even if seldom used. This isn't very green and frankly the low power nature of the Mini is one of it's big selling points. If Apple could advertise the Mini as using the power of a seventy five watt bulb that would draw peoples attention. Get that down to fifty watts running full out and people will really perk up, dropping the optical drive just might do that for them. Finally the lack of an optical drive could make for the possibility of an expansion slot, this of course blows power budgetting but a slot not used wastes nothing.
As to expansion slots I think this could be a real possibility even in the current Mini form factor. I'd especially love to see Apple move the market to flash storage on mini PCI EXPRESS cards. Mostly for better performance and to get rid of legacy disk chassis.
In anyevent back to CD drives. It is fine as long as one has good internal options besides no disk at all. Like I mentioned for many applications it is nothing but waste.
First guys realize that what Apple charges for a repair part or an upgrade has nothing to do with the actual cost of the drive! So don't use that as an arguement as it doesn't hold water.
Second I don't want to see the Mini loose it's optical drive but I would love the OPTION of not having one included. The reality is that in some applications the drive does nothing for you but produce heat which is also waste. So I'm all for a Optical drive free Mini as long as it is optional.
Third dropping the optical drive completely does give Apple some significant engineering advantages. For the Mini that CD drive takes up a lot of space! Another issue is power budgetting which means Apple needs to size components in the power supply to handle the optical drive load plus everything else all the time even if seldom used. This isn't very green and frankly the low power nature of the Mini is one of it's big selling points. If Apple could advertise the Mini as using the power of a seventy five watt bulb that would draw peoples attention. Get that down to fifty watts running full out and people will really perk up, dropping the optical drive just might do that for them. Finally the lack of an optical drive could make for the possibility of an expansion slot, this of course blows power budgetting but a slot not used wastes nothing.
As to expansion slots I think this could be a real possibility even in the current Mini form factor. I'd especially love to see Apple move the market to flash storage on mini PCI EXPRESS cards. Mostly for better performance and to get rid of legacy disk chassis.
In anyevent back to CD drives. It is fine as long as one has good internal options besides no disk at all. Like I mentioned for many applications it is nothing but waste.
Dave
why non sata based cards so the pci-e slots are free for non disk cards.
First guys realize that what Apple charges for a repair part or an upgrade has nothing to do with the actual cost of the drive! So don't use that as an arguement as it doesn't hold water.
The Apple upgrade may include the service fee but the 3rd party parts site price does not. That is the price for the unit alone. I found another parts site with a cheaper drive and you can get one including VAT for £70 ($110). Apple are most definitely charging a premium for their drives. Look at the Minis:
1.83GHz
80GB HD
combo
$599
2.0GHz
120GB HD
superdrive
$799
We know the 120GB drive costs $50 because it's an upgrade for the 1.83GHz model. The CPUs we discovered ages ago cost the same. Even in the most current Intel price list, the 1.8GHz and 2GHz Core 2 Duo are $209. There is a 2GHz model at $241 though so at most, that comes to $32 for the CPU bump.
The only other difference is the optical drive.
$200 - $50 - $32 = $118.
These are preconfigured models with no upgrades so I still reckon that Apple are charging over $100 for their slot-loading superdrive.
You can see this with the new laptops too. They all got bumped up to using superdrives and the prices went up. Since the laptop drives are more expensive, I wouldn't be surprised that most of the price hike came from them alone.
I wish apple comes up with macmini with no optical drives, but faster cpu and a decent/designated gpu, instead.
But there isn't much compelling reason to do without an optical drive in a desktop. The few extra cubic inches and a few extra ounces that might be a concern for a person with a notebook on the go aren't a problem for a desktop machine intended to just sit there on a table. Notebook optical drives aren't even expensive when you're considering Apple's volumes.
I've even tried to go without optical drives in a desktop after one expired from age, getting it to use a remote optical drive gets tedious.
But if you want to be pedantic, neither one of them is exactly $200. \
No I am not being pedantic, but it isn't 200 new, and as Americans like to remind everyone, that doesn't include sales taxes. Plus in most other countries it is a lot more than US$200
Okay good point... However I'd be looking at the all-new Mini (when it comes out) with at least a 250GB HDD and 2GB RAM... So I guess that'd be nearer £600 at Apple Store prices
That's a good reason I'm hoping they'll make the new Mini with user-replaceable RAM and HDD. That way I can buy the base version and upgrade it cheaply...
I'd get a PS3 if it ran iTunes and didn't look like a sandwich toaster
But there isn't much compelling reason to do without an optical drive in a desktop. The few extra cubic inches and a few extra ounces that might be a concern for a person with a notebook on the go aren't a problem for a desktop machine intended to just sit there on a table. Notebook optical drives aren't even expensive when you're considering Apple's volumes.
I've even tried to go without optical drives in a desktop after one expired from age, getting it to use a remote optical drive gets tedious.
BYOD?
There are number of external options.
Well... if anyone wants a fully function computing, there are desktops and even most labtops these days are fast enough to replace functions of desktops.
Macmini, however, is a perfect platform to use as a workstation. I do want one of these by every room paired with a tv. Of course, I would bring my own wireless keyboard and mouse.
That would be cool. But no optical drive would infuriate a lot of people to no end.
I think we need to get rid of the 'no optical drive' fear. It would have one as an option, it would simply be external or optionally internal, just not mandatory. Like I say, as Blu-Ray comes in, do you want to be stuck with a machine with just DVD capability? You could say that you'd just have 2 drives, internal DVD, external Blu-Ray but it's still more money.
Look at the pricing above, assuming that there is $100 premium, would you still go for the internal drive?
If you have a Mini and a Macbook Air, you only need to buy one drive to share with both of them. You'd most likely leave it attached to the desktop and this way you wouldn't feel quite so bad about buying one if you didn't use it with the MBA as much as expected.
One issue I can see is they probably won't increase the number of USB ports so you'd lose one for the drive. If you had a Cinema display, you could plug the optical drive into it though. This would help sell the Cinema display designed for the Macbook.
I am so tired of watching optical discs only to reach the middle of the film to see a disc error. We need to start moving away from mechanical drives. Look at the size of a 4GB MicroSD vs a DVD. There is the small matter of a 25x price gap but everything is moving to this - cameras, camcorders, hard drives in one form or another. Even if they had a slower write-once solid state media that cost a lot less that didn't have the flaw of optical drives, which is that there is no physical contact between the information receiver and the information.
Think of the install times for software - OS X installation goes from 45 minutes to 15 minutes. Think of the storage size. Noise while playing a console, game load times. Cost is the only problem. DVDs were more expensive at one point too. The drives were much more expensive than the media but the media was still 5 times more expensive than now just 5-6 years ago and only 1x performance.
The price only started to drop the more people adopted it. This is the case we are seeing with SSD right now. It will take so much longer to adopt if people don't see a reason to change.
Blu-Ray is a bag of hurt. Solid state is a bag of kittens. Just the expensive bald Sphynx kittens.
One of the key markets for the mini is those whose computer experience is "non-pro" for lack of a better term. Asking that market segment to learn how to load software (which still comes on disks, BTW) without an optical drive is something I don't see Apple going forward with.
One of the key markets for the mini is those whose computer experience is "non-pro" for lack of a better term. Asking that market segment to learn how to load software (which still comes on disks, BTW) without an optical drive is something I don't see Apple going forward with.
I agree, losing the optical drive would look weird to consumers, but this is Apple, who put out the original Mac where people thought the lack of a 5.25" floppy drive was weird, and the iMac where they just had a CD drive and no floppy drive. Apple is trying to sell itself as a complete solution for consumers software-wise, and that iLife and iWork could be all people need. A lot of software can be downloaded now, and I'm sure Apple would prefer consumers buy music from iTunes and not from ripping CDs, and then play the music on an iPod instead of burning CDs. In other words, no optical drive would give Apple a more closed consumer circle.
On top of that, consumers with an iPhone and iPod Touch have been buying and downloading programs online at huge rates. Maybe the app store becomes more robust with actual desktop apps being offered for consumer-line computers (Mini, Air, Macbook).
In regards to a drive, it could just be an option like with the Air. If anything, the Mini and the external drive for the air could end up sharing the same footprint so they could be stackable and look like they thought out the whole product.
Obviously, that won't happen. We have to be reasonable.
Heh.
Stick a Radeon 4850 in the Mac Mini. And you've got a machine any Mac buyer would be proud of. You can get a PS3 for less. And it includes Blue Ray for people who want it.
*Shrugs. It's not complicated.
Apple have got their 'cripple politics' running through their 'up the ladder' computer line.
In regards to a drive, it could just be an option like with the Air. If anything, the Mini and the external drive for the air could end up sharing the same footprint so they could be stackable and look like they thought out the whole product.
I'd like that stackable set. If the external (DVD) case was the same size as the current Mini, another HDD or SSD could be added. No need to open the Mini - just keep adding modules and the multiple modules would resemble the cube. No need for an xMac either.
Comments
...YOu must be young as you don't seem to understand the current economic conditions. Apple is in a good position but they are not invulnerable. I would expect to see many major corporations disappear in the near future. Worst yet if the government continues to bail out failed corporations like GM and such all of us could be in a world of hurt. Corporations are like Animals with cancer, sooner or later they come down with the disease and the owners are no longer successful in cutting the growths away. At this point the corporation must die or end up becoming a hole in the ground that money is burnt in.
So if you want to have the ability to keep Apple afloat and buy its hardware in the future you better start speaking up now when talk about bailing out XYZ company comes up. Other wise you will be spending years pay for some lazy ass United Auto Workers paycheck. If you don't think this is possible you damn well better wake up, because frankly I want an environment where I know Apple can succeed. In part that means that each of us has the money to buy the Apple goody of his choice....
To me the risk is as though Apple is a slick smooth Catamaran cutting through the stormy, shark-infested waters, while various boats are leaking all around them.
There are some forces of nature we must all face some day.
The saddest part to me, is that sure, Apple is great and all that, but, you know what? They had common sense. Imagine that. COMMON BLOODY SENSE. Hmm... like, do dilligent R&D. Make good products. Don't waste money on rubbish overblown advertising campaigns. Listen to customers. Respond to the market. Thinking long term. Leveraging business finances etc. sensibly... *SIGH*
Unlike most of the 'tards that got the whole world into this mess.
I agree and it wouldn't take much- just discontinue AppleTV, add it's software to the mini, add an HDMI port and boom - it's a combo of both. I would keep the optical drive though -with an option for blu-ray.
ridiculous, apple tv costs need to be kept down. and it is pretty cool.
as for the mini, i am happy they will do a new model, but i really dont understand why they would get rid of the optical drive. such speculation is stupid, most if not all my programs come on disc. same with alot of people. also, this drive doesnt take much room, its as though apple just wants to cut 15-20 in costs from it, to do it. i understand on macbook air, but to make people buy an external drive, it is just raising costs in a clandestine way.
AppleTV is not $200, not in the US, and especially not in any other country
? $229
Unlike other Mac products, a refurbished AppleTV is no different than non-refurbished one.
? $199
But if you want to be pedantic, neither one of them is exactly $200.
i really dont understand why they would get rid of the optical drive. such speculation is stupid, most if not all my programs come on disc. same with alot of people. also, this drive doesnt take much room, its as though apple just wants to cut 15-20 in costs from it, to do it. i understand on macbook air, but to make people buy an external drive, it is just raising costs in a clandestine way.
It's not just $15-20. If you buy an extra superdrive for a Mac Pro, they charge $100 and that is a tray-loading drive, which is typically cheaper than a slot-loading drive. I'd say you are talking about $150 for a slot-loading Apple superdrive. On a spare parts site, the drive is £95 excl tax, inclusive it is £111 = $174. It doesn't cost this to Apple but that's what it will cost you to buy a machine with that drive in it.
Imagine the case of the Mini server farm. They have over 500 Minis. 500 x $150 = $75,000 that didn't need to be spent as none of those drives are used.
At the very worst, there should be an option to not have an optical drive at all even if they don't get rid of it from the model and reduce the price accordingly. As well as being able to put another drive in for more room and RAID.
All the programs coming on disc issue isn't really a major problem because you can get an external, which is cheaper and faster. Also, you tend to install software once, so the drive doesn't need to be stuck inside the machine.
We are transitioning to Blu-Ray eventually. Would you rather have a DVD burner stuck inside your machine that you likely won't ever be able to upgrade or an external component that you can sell on ebay easily and get another external drive? The ability to change it easily applies to broken drives as well as upgrades.
I personally have an external and I've used the internal drive on my computer less than 5 times in about 2 years. My external, I've used over 100 times and I know that should my external drive break, I can get a replacement for about £20 as my drive enclosure takes IDE drives.
It's not just $15-20. If you buy an extra superdrive for a Mac Pro, they charge $100 and that is a tray-loading drive, which is typically cheaper than a slot-loading drive. I'd say you are talking about $150 for a slot-loading Apple superdrive. On a spare parts site, the drive is £95 excl tax, inclusive it is £111 = $174. It doesn't cost this to Apple but that's what it will cost you to buy a machine with that drive in it.
Slot loaders and tray loaders cost the same, the slots Apple sells are 12.7mm slim notebook drives in the Mini and 9.5mm superslims in the notebooks. The smaller a drive, the slower and more expensive it is. The reason you don't see slots very often in desktop drives is because they're incompatible of certain types of discs. One other point, I would never buy the extra drive. They're very easy to upgrade and the 16x IDE drives Apple uses are several years old.
To me the risk is as though Apple is a slick smooth Catamaran cutting through the stormy, shark-infested waters, while various boats are leaking all around them.
Nice! I'm a single hull guy myself though. The big concern is how many of those boats will actually sink. This is what could dramatically shrink Apples new product lines.
On the otherhand Apple has the ideal products, in iPhone and Touch for a very poor America. These are ideal devices for keeping in touch, extremely portable and energy efficient.
There are some forces of nature we must all face some day.
The saddest part to me, is that sure, Apple is great and all that, but, you know what? They had common sense. Imagine that. COMMON BLOODY SENSE. Hmm... like, do dilligent R&D. Make good products. Don't waste money on rubbish overblown advertising campaigns. Listen to customers. Respond to the market. Thinking long term. Leveraging business finances etc. sensibly... *SIGH*
Unlike most of the 'tards that got the whole world into this mess.
If they manage it right there is a very good possibility that Apple could come out of this with flying colors. It depends in part upon the government not screwing up to bad(not likely) and Apple getting those new products online. More importantly getting those new products priced right. I see low cost handheld devices as being a key component of Apples success in the next couple of years. They would provide the communications that people will need in a durable package for mobility.
Second I don't want to see the Mini loose it's optical drive but I would love the OPTION of not having one included. The reality is that in some applications the drive does nothing for you but produce heat which is also waste. So I'm all for a Optical drive free Mini as long as it is optional.
Third dropping the optical drive completely does give Apple some significant engineering advantages. For the Mini that CD drive takes up a lot of space! Another issue is power budgetting which means Apple needs to size components in the power supply to handle the optical drive load plus everything else all the time even if seldom used. This isn't very green and frankly the low power nature of the Mini is one of it's big selling points. If Apple could advertise the Mini as using the power of a seventy five watt bulb that would draw peoples attention. Get that down to fifty watts running full out and people will really perk up, dropping the optical drive just might do that for them. Finally the lack of an optical drive could make for the possibility of an expansion slot, this of course blows power budgetting but a slot not used wastes nothing.
As to expansion slots I think this could be a real possibility even in the current Mini form factor. I'd especially love to see Apple move the market to flash storage on mini PCI EXPRESS cards. Mostly for better performance and to get rid of legacy disk chassis.
In anyevent back to CD drives. It is fine as long as one has good internal options besides no disk at all. Like I mentioned for many applications it is nothing but waste.
Dave
First guys realize that what Apple charges for a repair part or an upgrade has nothing to do with the actual cost of the drive! So don't use that as an arguement as it doesn't hold water.
Second I don't want to see the Mini loose it's optical drive but I would love the OPTION of not having one included. The reality is that in some applications the drive does nothing for you but produce heat which is also waste. So I'm all for a Optical drive free Mini as long as it is optional.
Third dropping the optical drive completely does give Apple some significant engineering advantages. For the Mini that CD drive takes up a lot of space! Another issue is power budgetting which means Apple needs to size components in the power supply to handle the optical drive load plus everything else all the time even if seldom used. This isn't very green and frankly the low power nature of the Mini is one of it's big selling points. If Apple could advertise the Mini as using the power of a seventy five watt bulb that would draw peoples attention. Get that down to fifty watts running full out and people will really perk up, dropping the optical drive just might do that for them. Finally the lack of an optical drive could make for the possibility of an expansion slot, this of course blows power budgetting but a slot not used wastes nothing.
As to expansion slots I think this could be a real possibility even in the current Mini form factor. I'd especially love to see Apple move the market to flash storage on mini PCI EXPRESS cards. Mostly for better performance and to get rid of legacy disk chassis.
In anyevent back to CD drives. It is fine as long as one has good internal options besides no disk at all. Like I mentioned for many applications it is nothing but waste.
Dave
why non sata based cards so the pci-e slots are free for non disk cards.
First guys realize that what Apple charges for a repair part or an upgrade has nothing to do with the actual cost of the drive! So don't use that as an arguement as it doesn't hold water.
The Apple upgrade may include the service fee but the 3rd party parts site price does not. That is the price for the unit alone. I found another parts site with a cheaper drive and you can get one including VAT for £70 ($110). Apple are most definitely charging a premium for their drives. Look at the Minis:
1.83GHz
80GB HD
combo
$599
2.0GHz
120GB HD
superdrive
$799
We know the 120GB drive costs $50 because it's an upgrade for the 1.83GHz model. The CPUs we discovered ages ago cost the same. Even in the most current Intel price list, the 1.8GHz and 2GHz Core 2 Duo are $209. There is a 2GHz model at $241 though so at most, that comes to $32 for the CPU bump.
The only other difference is the optical drive.
$200 - $50 - $32 = $118.
These are preconfigured models with no upgrades so I still reckon that Apple are charging over $100 for their slot-loading superdrive.
You can see this with the new laptops too. They all got bumped up to using superdrives and the prices went up. Since the laptop drives are more expensive, I wouldn't be surprised that most of the price hike came from them alone.
I wish apple comes up with macmini with no optical drives, but faster cpu and a decent/designated gpu, instead.
forget about the drives.... macmini air, anyone?
I wish apple comes up with macmini with no optical drives, but faster cpu and a decent/designated gpu, instead.
But there isn't much compelling reason to do without an optical drive in a desktop. The few extra cubic inches and a few extra ounces that might be a concern for a person with a notebook on the go aren't a problem for a desktop machine intended to just sit there on a table. Notebook optical drives aren't even expensive when you're considering Apple's volumes.
I've even tried to go without optical drives in a desktop after one expired from age, getting it to use a remote optical drive gets tedious.
? $229
Unlike other Mac products, a refurbished AppleTV is no different than non-refurbished one.
? $199
But if you want to be pedantic, neither one of them is exactly $200.
No I am not being pedantic, but it isn't 200 new, and as Americans like to remind everyone, that doesn't include sales taxes. Plus in most other countries it is a lot more than US$200
Base Mini = £399.
Okay good point... However I'd be looking at the all-new Mini (when it comes out) with at least a 250GB HDD and 2GB RAM... So I guess that'd be nearer £600 at Apple Store prices
That's a good reason I'm hoping they'll make the new Mini with user-replaceable RAM and HDD. That way I can buy the base version and upgrade it cheaply...
I'd get a PS3 if it ran iTunes and didn't look like a sandwich toaster
But there isn't much compelling reason to do without an optical drive in a desktop. The few extra cubic inches and a few extra ounces that might be a concern for a person with a notebook on the go aren't a problem for a desktop machine intended to just sit there on a table. Notebook optical drives aren't even expensive when you're considering Apple's volumes.
I've even tried to go without optical drives in a desktop after one expired from age, getting it to use a remote optical drive gets tedious.
BYOD?
There are number of external options.
Well... if anyone wants a fully function computing, there are desktops and even most labtops these days are fast enough to replace functions of desktops.
Macmini, however, is a perfect platform to use as a workstation. I do want one of these by every room paired with a tv. Of course, I would bring my own wireless keyboard and mouse.
forget about the drives.... macmini air, anyone?
I wish apple comes up with macmini with no optical drives, but faster cpu and a decent/designated gpu, instead.
That would be cool. But no optical drive would infuriate a lot of people to no end.
That would be cool. But no optical drive would infuriate a lot of people to no end.
I think we need to get rid of the 'no optical drive' fear. It would have one as an option, it would simply be external or optionally internal, just not mandatory. Like I say, as Blu-Ray comes in, do you want to be stuck with a machine with just DVD capability? You could say that you'd just have 2 drives, internal DVD, external Blu-Ray but it's still more money.
Look at the pricing above, assuming that there is $100 premium, would you still go for the internal drive?
If you have a Mini and a Macbook Air, you only need to buy one drive to share with both of them. You'd most likely leave it attached to the desktop and this way you wouldn't feel quite so bad about buying one if you didn't use it with the MBA as much as expected.
One issue I can see is they probably won't increase the number of USB ports so you'd lose one for the drive. If you had a Cinema display, you could plug the optical drive into it though. This would help sell the Cinema display designed for the Macbook.
I am so tired of watching optical discs only to reach the middle of the film to see a disc error. We need to start moving away from mechanical drives. Look at the size of a 4GB MicroSD vs a DVD. There is the small matter of a 25x price gap but everything is moving to this - cameras, camcorders, hard drives in one form or another. Even if they had a slower write-once solid state media that cost a lot less that didn't have the flaw of optical drives, which is that there is no physical contact between the information receiver and the information.
Think of the install times for software - OS X installation goes from 45 minutes to 15 minutes. Think of the storage size. Noise while playing a console, game load times. Cost is the only problem. DVDs were more expensive at one point too. The drives were much more expensive than the media but the media was still 5 times more expensive than now just 5-6 years ago and only 1x performance.
The price only started to drop the more people adopted it. This is the case we are seeing with SSD right now. It will take so much longer to adopt if people don't see a reason to change.
Blu-Ray is a bag of hurt. Solid state is a bag of kittens. Just the expensive bald Sphynx kittens.
One of the key markets for the mini is those whose computer experience is "non-pro" for lack of a better term. Asking that market segment to learn how to load software (which still comes on disks, BTW) without an optical drive is something I don't see Apple going forward with.
I agree, losing the optical drive would look weird to consumers, but this is Apple, who put out the original Mac where people thought the lack of a 5.25" floppy drive was weird, and the iMac where they just had a CD drive and no floppy drive. Apple is trying to sell itself as a complete solution for consumers software-wise, and that iLife and iWork could be all people need. A lot of software can be downloaded now, and I'm sure Apple would prefer consumers buy music from iTunes and not from ripping CDs, and then play the music on an iPod instead of burning CDs. In other words, no optical drive would give Apple a more closed consumer circle.
On top of that, consumers with an iPhone and iPod Touch have been buying and downloading programs online at huge rates. Maybe the app store becomes more robust with actual desktop apps being offered for consumer-line computers (Mini, Air, Macbook).
In regards to a drive, it could just be an option like with the Air. If anything, the Mini and the external drive for the air could end up sharing the same footprint so they could be stackable and look like they thought out the whole product.
Obviously, that won't happen. We have to be reasonable.
Heh.
Stick a Radeon 4850 in the Mac Mini. And you've got a machine any Mac buyer would be proud of. You can get a PS3 for less. And it includes Blue Ray for people who want it.
*Shrugs. It's not complicated.
Apple have got their 'cripple politics' running through their 'up the ladder' computer line.
Lemon Bon Bon.
In regards to a drive, it could just be an option like with the Air. If anything, the Mini and the external drive for the air could end up sharing the same footprint so they could be stackable and look like they thought out the whole product.
I'd like that stackable set. If the external (DVD) case was the same size as the current Mini, another HDD or SSD could be added. No need to open the Mini - just keep adding modules and the multiple modules would resemble the cube. No need for an xMac either.